A 22-year-old man randomly k!lled three women during a violent murder spree in a rural Utah community before stealing their cars and credit cards because he needed money to get back to Iowa, prosecutors say.
Ivan Miller, of Blakesburg, Iowa, was taken into custody on Thursday, March 5, in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, some 370 miles from the scene of the crimes in Wayne County, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety. Police said Miller had a handgun and a large knife with him when he was arrested.
Miller told FBI agents it “had to be done’ but he did not like to do it,” according to charging documents.
He has been charged with three counts of aggravated murd£r for the murd£rs of three women – one who was in her 80s, who was found de@d at her home in Lyman, and two women who were going hiking together on the Cockscomb Trail at the Capitol Reef National Park. None has yet been publicly identified.
The 22-year-old allegedly told the FBI he had hit an elk in Utah days earlier and sold his truck to a tow company before deciding he needed a new vehicle.
He reportedly spent the night in the back shed of the woman in her 80s in Lyman and later saw her drive away in a Buick LeSabre. He then waited for her inside the house, hiding behind the door, and – after she returned and sat down to watch television – shot her in the back of the head, prosecutors say.
After allegedly dragging her body to the basement of an out-building he drove away, but decided “he did not like the car and wanted to find a different vehicle.” It was allegedly at this point that he saw two women getting out of a white Subaru at a trailhead at Capitol Reef National Park.
The charging documents claim he shot one of the women dead and then shot and stabbed the other before dragging their bodies to a ditch. “Miller said he did it because he needed money. Miller said that he took their credit cards and used the older woman’s card to buy gas. Miller said that his intent was to get back to Iowa,” the charges say.
“Miller confessed that it ‘had to be done’ but he did not like to do it.”
The two women, one in her 30s and one in her 60s, were found by their husbands, who had gone to the scene to look for them. They raised the alarm, and police found the first vehicle not far from the scene, which led them to the murder scene in Lyman.
Lt. Cameron Roden, a spokesman for the Utah Highway Patrol, told The Independent that there was no indication that Miller had any connection with any of the women.
“It does not appear that these women were specifically targeted other than the convenience of the suspect stealing their vehicles,” Roden said.
Following the discovery of the bodies, an urgent manhunt was launched, with police appealing for information about the victim’s stolen vehicle, a 2022 White Subaru Outback with license plate U560YF.
Police made the arrest after tracking the Subaru from the trailhead in Utah through Arizona and into Colorado. The car was found abandoned in Pagosa Springs, which led police to the suspect. The vehicle was tracked through southern Utah and into northern Arizona before it was found abandoned in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, Roden confirmed.
The suspect was arrested without incident at 2.40 a.m. on Thursday morning after a brief search of the area and was found to have a concealed handgun and a large knife, the Pagosa Springs Police Department said.
Miller was reportedly scheduled to appear in an Iowa courtroom on Friday on charges of theft, burglary, marijuana possession, and being ineligible to carry a gun, according to KSL.
Torrey Mayor Mickey Wright told FOX13: “Our community is grieving today following the tragic deaths of three women in Wayne County yesterday. On behalf of the Town of Torrey, I extend my deepest condolences to the families, friends, and loved ones of the victims. This is a heartbreaking moment for our small, close‑knit community.”
